Picnic at the Palmeral
THE PALMERAL palm tree plantation in Orihuela will have its own area to welcome visitors in June.
This will consist of an openair space with green areas and an amphitheatre on an 800 square metre plot next to the interpretation centre, explained project director Jesús Madrid. The work is due to take one month to complete from the official start date on Monday. The contract to create it was awarded for a budget of €47,720, of which 50% is being financed by EU FEDER funds as part of the sustainable integrated urban development strategy (EDUSI) programme.
Environment councillor Dámaso Aparicio said the council will ‘soon’ approve its bylaw to protect the Palmeral, which is the second largest in Europe after Elche’s, and will also award a contract to manage pest control in the Palmeral over the next four years for €1.2 million.
He noted that this area was not in the original project to restore the Palmeral and said: “I
thought to myself when we were doing it that a space to welcome visitors was missing, a place to come with your children for a picnic while waiting for your turn to visit, or to engage in environmental
education.”
He thanked Clara Corpus for designing the project and all the personnel in the environment department and the town hall who had worked on this job, ‘which will be carried out by Orihuela-based companies’.
The project had to be approved by the regional government because the Palmeral is protected as an asset of cultural interest (BIC).